David S. Stanley to Sir F. Wright Bruce, September 10, 1867
Lord Stanley to Sir F. Wright Bruce
Sir: The minister of the United States called upon, me to-day and communicated to me a dispatch, of which, however, he was not authorized to give me a copy, from Mr. Seward, dated the 12th of August, in reply to my dispatch to you of the 24th of May, respecting the mutual claims of the two countries on each other arising out of the late civil war.
By this dispatch Mr. Adams is authorized to assure me that Mr. Seward did not understand my previous offer of arbitration to apply only to claims arising out of the depredations of the Alabama, to the exclusion of those arising out of the depredations of vessels of the like character, but, on the contrary, understood the offer to apply equally to all such claims.
The President, Mr. Seward says, considers the terms of the offer of the British government to go to arbitration upon the question whether, in the matters connected with all those vessels out of whose depredations the claims of American citizens have arisen, the course pursued by the British government and those who acted upon its authority was such as would involve a moral responsibility to make good, either in whole or in part, the losses of American citizens, to be at once comprehensive and sufficiently precise to include all the claims of American citizens for depredations on their commerce during the late rebellion, which have been the subject of complaint on the part of the government of the United States.
But Mr. Seward goes on to say that the government of the United States would deem itself at liberty to insist before the arbiter that the actual proceedings and relations of the British government, its officers, agents, and subjects, towards the United States in regard to the rebellion and the rebels, as they occurred during that rebellion, are among the matters which are connected with the vessels whose depredations are complained of; just as in the case of general claims, alluded to in my dispatch, the actual proceedings and relations of her Majesty’s government, its officers, agents, and subjects, in regard to the United States in regard to the rebellion and the rebels, are necessarily connected with the transactions out of which those general claims arose.
Mr. Seward further observes that my plan seems to be to constitute two descriptions of tribunals: one an arbiter to determine the question of the moral responsibility of the British government in regard to the vessels of the Alabama class; and the other a mixed commission, to adjudicate the so-called general claims of both sides; and a contingent reference to the same or other mixed commissions, to ascertain and determine the amount of damages for indemnity to be awarded in the cases examined by the first tribunal in the event of a decision of moral responsibility in favor of the United States. But Mr. Seward says that the government of the United States do not consider any distinction as to principle between the two tribunals to be necessary, and that in every case they agree only to unrestricted arbitration. It may be convenient, indeed, that the claims should be distributed between the two tribunals, both of which, however, the government of the United States consider should proceed upon the same principle and be clothed with the same powers.
Mr. Seward concludes his dispatch by saying that the President will be gratified if the explanations contained in. it should conduce to the removal of the difficulties which have heretofore prevented the two governments from coming to an amicable and friendly understanding and arrangement.
I reserve for a future occasion any observations that I may have to offer on Mr. Seward’s dispatch.
I am, &c.,